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Friday, January 09, 2009
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El Sherbiny Farm
The Farm:
- Located in the area of Alexandria Egypt
- Typical mediterranian weather, cold and rainy in winter (October through April) with an average morning temperature of 22° C (72° F) and 15° C (59° F) night time temperature
- Summers (May through September) are hot and humid with morning temperatures of 40°C (104°F) and night temperatures of 30°C (86°F).
- Very little autumn and spring like weather
- High humidity result is production loss of approximately 10% during summers.
- Average days in milk is 210 with an average lactation length of 340 days and an average calving interval of 400 days
- Heat detection is by physical observation at dawn and sunset. Statistics of heat detection are very acceptable and conception rate and calving intervals concur
Farm Location: Egypt
Utilizing resources on the web we have found the following information relevant to the dairy industry in Egypt:
- Buffalos and local Baladi cows were the main dairy animals according to 1997 statistics
- Egypt has a tradition of family ownership of small herds of milk producing animals, accounting for 70% of the country’s milk production. However, large scale farms are being established with dairy cows
- Large commercial dairy farms sell their milk to leading processing companies, but a good portion of dairy products result from artisanal (unbranded and sold loose) production
- Products produced include drinking milks, rayeb (plain drinking yoghurt), yoghurt and labneh (strained yoghurt), cream, milk powder, butter ghee, butter, cheese and ice cream
- Imports of dairy products are being replaced by an increase in local production and joint venture arrangements between Egyptian companies and multinationals
- The shift to local production has led to a dramatic increase in consumption
- The dairy market increased 60% in volume between 1996 and 2000, equivalent to an annual growth rate of 12.6%
Resources:
http://www.imes.co.uk/pages/egyptart.html
http://www.imes.co.uk/pages/egyptdairy.html
Farm Management:
This farm is a shareholding company with Mr. El Sherbiny as Chairman and Managing Director
Strategic decisions regarding capital investments require his approval
Next level of management includes financial, commercial, administrative and herd managers
The financial and commercial manager handles all sales and purchases and relationships with the outside world
The herd manager is totally responsible for the who operation inside the farm.
Engineers handling the feeding units, the parlour and the yards as well as the veterinarians handling the farm’s medication and insemination program all report to the herd manager who in turn reports to the managing director
All employees have job descriptions
Consultants are used on a minimal scale
Nutritient Management:
Dry manure is collected once a year from inside the yards with loaders and trucks to a thickness of approximately 20 cm (8 inches)
Dried manure is sent to fertilize banana yards
Feeding/Cropping:
TMR fed, formula computerized through locally designed in-farm computer software
NRC used as reference
Main forages are hay and corn silage
Main source of protein is 44% Soya Bean Meal, extracted cottonseed meal and linseed meal
Main source of energy is full fat soya, whole cottonseed and by-pass (protected) fat
No forages are planted, suppliers provide all corn silage, hay and alfalfa needs
Milking:
Milked three times per day
DeLaval Herringbone parlour with 24 units
Utilize Alpro herd management system
Milk is stored in two 7,500 litre (~2000 gallons) cooling tanks
Average milk weight produced is 29 kg (64 lbs) per cow 3.9% fat, 3.2% protein, TBC < 10,000
Milk shipped daily
Young Stock and Replacements:
Average age at first calving is 23-24 months
50 calves on site and 340 heifers
Replacement rate is approximately 20%
Artificial insemination used
Replacements are mainly through heifers bred on the farm
Expansions done through heifers imported from Europe
Housing:
Cows are housed in corrals
Each yard is 5000 square meters (100 x 50) (~6000 square yards) with a capacity of about 120 cows
Approximately 50 % of the yard’s area is shaded
All of a yard’s herd can eat at the same time and about 40% have access to water tanks at any one time
Currently increasing the shaded areas as well as installing fans and misters to overcome the negative effect of hot, humid summer weather.
Economics:
- Feed costs represent 75% of total cost
- Facilities, 13% of costs
- Veterinary expenses, 2% of costs
- Labor, 10%
Community:
The Egyptian dairy market is made up of two types of cooperatives: Farmers cooperatives and packaging and producers cooperatives.
The latter group is mainly representatives of the packaging facilities that are controlling the dairy market in Egypt.
As farmers are price takers for purchases of raw materials and feed as well as for sales of raw milk there is continued pressure for them to improve the sales price to be able to economically succeed in managing the business
Senior government officials sponsor meetings between farmers and producers
Complainants are well taken care of and we are proud to be members in a farmers cooperative where our representatives have our best interest always in mind
Future:
The initial goal of this farm set three years ago was to have 1400 milking cows milking in a 48 unit parlor
Staff is currently being trained to handle that size and hopefully the target will be reached over the next 24 months.
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